


Collecting Time

by Mustachebabs



Series: Timely Matters [7]
Category: New World Magischola (Live-Action Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen, NWM Second Semester, NWM5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 00:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14863026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mustachebabs/pseuds/Mustachebabs
Summary: Step 1: SleepStep 2: Fix everything you hecked up while split in timelinesStep 3: ???





	Collecting Time

It feels like she hasn’t had a decent night of sleep in months… Ari rubs at her face as she sits at her desk, trying to write as much as she can in her notebook before finally going to bed. The prospect of a restful night feels like a blessing after the day she’s had. Like a weary traveler finally reaching home. She’s frantically writing down everything she can remember since the gorecaster arrest during first semester. Piecing together everything that had happened, she knows they are her memories, but they also feel so foreign to her at the same time… They ARE someone else’s, but they’d undoubtedly happened to her too, so she was the one that had to make amends for everything. She wants to try to make up for lost time…

Even the way her desk is arranged seems _wrong_. As if she hadn’t been the one to arrange it: _those potions usually go on the other side, I usually keep those in the drawer and not on the shelf_. All of this, she makes notes of. When it’s time to change the page, she finds a letter that’s been tucked inside the notebook.

It’s a piece of parchment, a crude note written in silver ink inside. Ari knows what it reads, knows she didn’t attend. She recognizes how much of a mistake it would have been to attend, which reassures her that perhaps not all is lost, that this is wholly _her_  now. She grabs her lantern from the shelf above her desk, uses her wand to light it, and tosses the piece of paper inside. It burns quickly enough and there’s no ashes left behind to collect.

Ari stares at the flicker of the fire within the lantern for a moment, blowing it out as she promises herself to leave all of that behind. Prove herself better.

Along with the notes on what she can remember happened in  _the last four months_ , she makes notes on the possibilities that might have originated the temporal streams merging. Perhaps a dissonance created by the contact with the slagerod that had attuned both timelines into one… Or perhaps something much more innocuous, as was so inherent with time magic. Ari didn’t need to know the answer immediately, probably didn’t want to either. She needs rest. A moment to catch her breath and be herself and feel like she’s in control.

 

When her head finally touches her pillow, slumber comes easily. So do the nightmares too. Those same memories she’s just written down, in hopes to leave them on paper and tend to them later, replay in her dreams. And there’s herself, but not herself. No, the version with the hands full of blood, living those memories. They look back at her, smile knowingly, and Ari’s never been one for screaming, but she feels like doing just that.

She wakes to a dark dorm. Looks at her forearm once her eyes adjust. _It’s not there_ , which is a reprise. Ari does her best to go back to sleep. Thankfully, the rest of the night provides dreamless sleep.

 

The next morning, Ari’s back at her desk. Making more notes as Tristan finishes up their packing. Still tired and knowing full well amends would take time, Ari tries her best to stay out of Tristan’s way. When she hears their boots head for the door, she looks up from her notebook towards them.

“Hey, um… Have a good summer.” She says with a weary smile.

Tristan’s hand is on the doorknob, but they look over at Ari for a moment. They don’t add much, but return the smile shortly as they fix their duffle bag over their shoulder.

“You too.” Is all they say before they open the door and close it after themselves.

Ari stares at the door for a moment longer before she sighs. She had a lot of amends to make. Turning back to the desk, she closes her eyes for a moment. The image of her hands full of blood flashes through again and she lets out a groan. Maybe a nap later would help. Going back to making notes, she does not write down the haunting feeling that lingers. 


End file.
